452 CHINESE FISHING 



parallels— but of his Angling is morally edifying, piscatorially 

 instructive, and is possibly responsible for the rise in Great 

 Britain and America of the barbless school of anglers. As 

 yet its pupils, despite the missionary zeal of Mr. Rhead, are 

 scattered few and far between. The limitation of their 

 numbers can doubtless be ascribed to their introspective and 

 becoming fear lest the " real attraction," which, according to 

 a Chinese classic, was in our hero's case not his straight iron 

 but his innate virtue, should \^'ith them, either from sparsity 

 or lowness of power, lack the requisite magnetism ! 



But retoumons a nos poissons I King Wen, the founder of 

 the Chou Dynasty, and one of the great sages— whence, perhaps, 

 his intelligent annexation of Chiang, for all Anglers ex necessitate 

 are, or should be, also sages — comes across our hero fishing with 

 a piece of straight iron instead of a barbed hook. This tackle, 

 he explains to the unrecognised monarch, is based on principles 

 dear to our Conscientious Objectors, viz. voluntaryism — " for 

 only volunteers would suffer themselves to be caught thus- 

 wise " — and of mercy — " since it gave all those who wished a 

 chance of escape." 



Wen, from his many campaigns, observed much and missed 

 little. He noticed the full creel. Thence, as a Sage would, 

 deduced that since a virtuous man's wants are always satisfied, 

 Chiang must be just such a man. He felt instinctively that 

 here indeed was the statesman whom his grandsire — observe 

 the ancestor-reverence ! — would have selected. So without 

 more ado or any references as to character. Wen carried Chiang 

 off, whether with or without the full creel history deigns no 

 word, to his palace, installed him as Viceroy, and ever after 

 termed him " my Grandfather's Desire," a sobriquet which, 

 however well meant, our philosophic piscator — he was only 

 eighty when caught straight-ironing— must at times have 

 resented. 1 



Not dissimilar in method if unlike in emolument, stands 

 out the historical (for he shone in the eighth century a.d.) 

 Chang Chih-ho, that " ghttering example of humorous romantic 

 detachment and carelessness of public opinion, who spent his 



1 See H. A. Giles, Chinese Biographical Diet.. 1898, p. 135. No. 343. 



